Dansende kinderen c. 1537 - 1555

Cornelis Bos created this engraving, "Dancing Children," sometime between 1510 and 1556. Bos lived during the Northern Renaissance, a time when artists were increasingly interested in classical antiquity, seen here in the putti-like figures. Consider the setting; it is a party, a celebration, but who is invited to this revelry, and who is not? The children are nude and seemingly without mind for hierarchy or the strictures of adulthood. Yet, even here, we see the influence of the patriarchy in the cherubic boys and their prominent genitalia. What does it mean to depict children in a state of undress, and who is the implied viewer? "Dancing Children" presents a vision of youthful abandon, but it also subtly underscores the complex ways that power and sexuality can be inscribed, even in the most innocent-seeming scenes.